Category Archives: Real estate

Slimin’ Jamie Dimon’s Scheming to Stick the FDIC with WaMu Losses

It’s really easy to have a fortress balance sheet if you can get other people to eat your losses

Reform Suggestions for the Rogue Regulator, the OCC, and its Partner in Crime, the Shadow Regulator Promontory Group

As a follow up to our series* on how Bank of America and its supposed independent consultant Promontory Financial Group, colluded to make a mockery of a process designed to provide compensation to borrowers who had suffered abuses in foreclosures during 2009 and 2010, we thought we would offer a few suggestions as to how to forestall future fiascoes of this sort.

New Whistleblower Describes How Bank of America Flagrantly Violates Dual Tracking, Single Point of Contact Requirements in State/Federal Mortgage Settlement

Remember that big, ballyhooed mortgage settlement of early last year? The one where homeowners got $25 billion of relief (well actually only around $5 billion in cold cash, but why bother with pesky details?) The one made possible by Eric Schneiderman abandoning his fellow state attorneys general to grasp the brass ring of a do-just-about-nothing Residential Mortgage-Backed Task Force? The one that would make banks clean up their act and stop using robosigned documents and deal more fairly with borrowers?

Consent orders are seldom worth the paper they are printed on. The state/Federal settlement of early 2012 is no different.

Dave Dayen: Yes, Katrina, Wall Street Won Again, and Progressives Need to Face Up to That

By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger, now a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen

Greetings, NC readers! Yves has been nice enough to open up her Internet home to me, and I intend to grab the opportunity from time to time. This offer turned fortuitous after I wrote a little piece from Salon on the “anniversary” of the securitization fraud task force, announced at last year’s State of the Union address. Well, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, got very upset at my characterization of the task force

OCC Compounds Botched Foreclosure Review Process with Barmy Plan for Distributing Peanuts

The OCC is bravely trying to spin the horrorshow of its botched foreclosure reviews as some sort of positive outcome. It is apparently now trying to present its dereliction of duty in figuring out how to compensate borrowers as no big deal.

Dave Dayen on How the CFPB Punted on Servicer Reform

I know a lot of readers miss Dave Dayen, who had a solid following at Firedoglake and among other things, covered the mortgage beat ably and energetically. He’s apparently been busy reporting, and just published a story in Washington Monthly on how the mortgage standards launched by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fall well short of what is necessary.

Bank of America Foreclosure Reviews: Why the OCC Overlooked “Independent” Reviewer Promontory’s Keystone Cops Act (Part VB)

This post continues our discussion of the role of “independent” foreclosure review consultant Promontory Financial Group. Here we focus on what happened, or more important, didn’t happen in Promontory’s conduct of the reviews, and how that contrasts with the staggering fees the firm is widely believed to have earned.

Bank of America Foreclosure Reviews: How the Cover-Up Happened (Part IVB)

This post continues our discussion of how Bank of America and its consultant, Promontory Financial Group, made concerted efforts to ignore and suppress evidence of harm to borrowers who asked for what was supposed to be an independent review of their foreclosure.

Judge Rakoff Delivers Big Blow to Bank of America and JP Morgan in Flagstar Mortgage Putback Ruling

Wow, one of my big assumptions about mortgage putback cases has been turned on its ear, much to the detriment of Bank of America and JP Morgan. If you thought there were pitched legal battles on this front, a key ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff means you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Will Federal Home Loan Banks’ Lawsuit Derail Bank of America’s $8.5 Billion Settlement?

There have been so many ~~bailouts~~ settlements of various bank mortgage misdeeds that it’s no doubt hard to keep them straight unless you are on this beat. But the short version is I’m delighted at this effort to throw a monkey wrench in the Bank of America settlement.

Congress Begins Investigation of Botched Foreclosure Review Cover-Up Settlement

The more people look at the abruptly-arranged settlement of the OCC/Fed foreclosure reviews, the more they realize something does not smell right.

Reflections on the Current Belief That Housing Will Come Roaring Back

By George Feiger, CEO of Contango Capital Advisors. From Contango’s current “Heard off the Street” newsletter

We question whether the widely held judgment that the US handled its banking crisis much better than the Europeans will survive the inevitable upturn in interest rates.

Expert Witnesses Starting to Take on Forgeries in Foreclosures

One of the things we’ve lamented since 2010, before the robosiging scandal broke, is the use of forgeries and document fabrications to remedy otherwise fatal problems with foreclosure actions, such as a lack of proper signatures on a borrower promissory note.

It looks like document experts are finally getting their day in court.

Yet Another Cost of Doing Business Fine: Lender Processing Services Settles with 46 Attorneys General for $127 Million

All you need to know to get confirmation that Lender Processing Services got a great gift is to look at what its stock did on the day of the announcement of its $127 million settlement with 46 chump state attorneys general, on a day when the market was down generally:

Mirabile Dictu! Finally, Someone (Amar Bhide) Questions Benefits of Mortgage Securitization

A major intellectual blind spot in academia and among policy makers is the belief that making markets more liquid is always and ever a good thing.